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NEWSLETTER Vol. 3, No. I Spring, 1985

Yale Press To Publish Essays Threepenny at R & H Yale University Press has accepted for publica­ As of 11 December 1984, Rodgers & Ham­ tion a coUection of essays on Kurt Weill sched­ merstein Library has added The uled for completion in 1985. A New Orpheus: Threej>enny Opera to its catalogue of plays for Essays on Kurt Weill evolved primarily from stock and amateur licensing in the United papers presented at the Kurt Weill Conference States. The American version by Marc Blitz­ in 1983. It includes a contribution from virtually stein ran for seven years at New York's Theatre every active Weill scholar throughout the world. de Lys in the late Fifties and had been previ­ AU of the papers have been expanded and ously licensed by Tarns-Witmark Music Library, revised and represent the most extensive criti­ Inc. cal survey of WeiU's music and career to date. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre The coUection, edited by Kim Kowalke, was Library is preparing new scripts and vocal accepted unanimously by the editorial board of scores which will be consistent with the high this most prestigious of scholarly publishers. quality of their other publications. Jn addition to Among the highlights of the anthology are David Threepenny, R & H also administers stock and Drew's definitive study of , a key amateur rights to , Lost in work in WeiU's ouevre that has remained unpub­ the St,ars, and . lished and unperformed since 1935. The book ;,We are thrilled and excited to announce the will attract readers from diverse disciplines, addition of Threepenny to our catalog ," said The­ since the essays tackle many issues central to odore Chapin, Managing Director of R & H. twentieth-century culture. Because the authors "As this work joins others by l&ill, our com­ had access for the first time to many primary pany hopes to establish an identification as a sources, the book provides new insights con• centralized source of Weill's music. We want to cerning the Weill-Brecht relationship, the para­ be the first company that theaters call when Lenya stars as the scheming Contessa in doxes of his career, and the major influences on they want to perform a show by Kurt Weill. "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone:' his music. It is particularly fitting that the collec­ Beyond this, we take special pride in acquiring a tion will be published by Yale Press since Yale major property which has no prior connection to holds the Weill/Lenya Archive and has a distin­ either Rodgers or Hammerstein:' 'Roman Spring' Released guished history of major perfom1ances ofWeill's "Rodgers & Hammerstein are the Rolls­ on Videotape music. Royce of the industry in terms of quality in rental ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," the materials and service to the theaters," said Kim 1961 film for which won an Academy Kowalke, President of the Weill Foundation. Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Venus Slated for Broadway "The authors' heirs are delighted to assign this has been released on videotape by Warner work to a first-rate agency and to have Weill's Home Video (11183. color. 104 mins.l, at a list The heirs of S. J. Perelman, Ogden Nash, musicals among the classics of the repertoire:' price of$59.95. and Kurt Weill have signed an option by Lew Inquiries regarding Based on a short novel by Tennessee Wil­ Resseguie and Francis J. Vacca to present a should be made to The Rodgers & Hammer­ liams, "Roman Spring" is the story of a lonely, revival of One Touch of ¼mus on Broadway stein Theatre Library, 598 Madison Ave., New ,vidowed American actress (played by Vivien next season. Paige O'Hara will return to the York, New York 10022; telephone: (212) 486- Leigh), who becomes involved with Paolo, a role of Venus, which she played in the 1983 7373. young gigolo (Warren Beatty) while living in concert production by the New Amsterdam Weill Recordings Win Citations Italy. Lenya plays the Contessa, who arranges Theatre Company at New York's Town Hall. and then disrupts the assignation. In its recent The terms of the agreement require use of When the "Best of the Year" awards were review of the video, The New Thrk Times lik­ Weill 's original orchestrations, and the pro­ passed out for 1964 recordings, at least three ened Lenya's Contessa to "a poisonous macaw." duction will utilize an orchestra of 28 players. major publications included Weill albums in their Jose Quintero directed. Opening date, theater, artistic staff, and the lists. Newsweek cited the Sequoia String Quar­ Also currently available on video are "Semi­ remainder of the cast have not been an­ tet's new recording of the string quartets Tougb" [Magnetic Video/Twentieth-Century nounced. This will be the first revival on [Nonesuch 79071-1] as among the year's ten Fox 4517-30), a 1977 Burt Reynolds comedy Broadway of the classic musical, which best. The CBS reissue of Aufstieg und Fall der featuring Lenya 's last film appearance (as a opened in 1943 and vaulted to St,adt Mahagonn.y [CBS Masterworks 77341; sadistic masseuse); and "From Russia With fame in her first lead. The original production M3X 37874] captured first place in Ovation's Love" [Twentieth-Century Fox4566], the 1963 was directed by , choreographed "Vocal Reissues-Mono" category and was cited James Bond thriller with Lenya in her most by Agnes de Mille, and conducted by Maurice as an outstanding historical issue by Opera widely-known role: Rosa Kleb, the villainous Abravanel. News. SPECTRE agent with knives in her shoes. LETTERS From the Editor 1985 is a double anniversary year: Kurt To the Editor: To the Editor: Weill's 85th birthday and the 50th anniversary I just read the perceptive piece by Alan Rich. l would like to than.k you and the Kurt Weill Foun ­ of Weill and Lenya's arrival in America. In "M~va canta Brecht," in the latest issue of the dation for Music for the very complimentary and Newsletter. lt seemed to me factually accurate, but commemoration, an article by Dr. Henry well-considered review of the Arena Stage produc­ Marx in this issue focuses on the Americani­ not very nattering to the singer. Since I grew up in tion of . It is rare (especially in the !he­ Italy I can perhaps provide a few remarks to com­ ater, regrettably) that the reviewer knows the zation of Weill and Lenya. Dr. Marx, a long­ plete the picture with an ltalian point of view. material so thoroughly. Rarer still is the review time friend of Lenya's, is currently Editor of started out as a popular singer of no particu­ where the music in a musical lbeater work draws Aujbau. Also featured in this issue is the first lar distinction. I remember how her encounter with scrutiny. publication of examples of the correspon­ produced a metamorphosis in her As music director for the production I was partic­ dence held in the archival collections at Yale singing style and acting. T he Jtalian director was ularly delighted to hear your perceptions of the mu­ M.ilva's Pygmalion. Her performance in the University and at the Foundation's Weill-Le­ sic. On one point, though, I should lll

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2 NEWS IN BRIEF at the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in East , 85th Birthday Celebrations and a smaller exhibition, "Kurt Weill: Ein American Premiere: 2 March marked the 85th anniversary of grosser Sohn der Stadt Dessau," took place at Pantomime I Wei!J 's birth and a few of the special celebrations the Landestheater Dessau. Two "cabaret" pro­ held worldwide were reported to the Newsletter. grams were also compiled in conjunction with "Pantomime I," a scene for wind ensemble Throughout the month of March, a large exhibi~ these exhibitions. "\bm Schiffbauerdamm zum and four voices from Weill's opera Der Protago­ tion entitled "Vom Schiffbauerdamm zum Broadway" opened 2 March at the Berliner m'sl. was given its American premiere in Phila­ Broadway,'' featuring photos, documents, Ensemble and featured Gisela May, vocalist, delphia 1 February by students of the Curtis music, recordings, and posters, was on display and Rainer Bohm, musical director. Beginning Institute of Music, and in New York 3 February the same day at the Landestheater Dessau was at Carnegie Recital Hall. "Unterwegs zu Weill:' also featuring actors and Lisa White, Richard Zuch, Jeffrey Mosher, Pina Bausch at BAM singers in new arrangements of \.\~ill's songs. and Kevin Short made up the vocal ensemble; ln New York, Joy Bogen presented Ira Levin conducted, and the concert was Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Tanztheater will an all-Weill recital in Merkin Concert Hall on 3 supervised by Sol Schoenbach and Lys open this year's "Next Wave Festival" at the March with a progrnrn of Weill's art songs and Symonette. faculty members at the Curtis Insti­ Brooklyn Academy of Music. On the program selections from Die Dreigroschenoper, Royal tute. Miss White, a mezzo-soprano, took the from 6 to 13 October will be six perfonnances of Palace, Der Kt

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE3 by one person, with occasional harmony tected against theft, defacement, PRESIDENT'S tentatively supplied by a singing piano player, misrepresentation, and mutilation. Although Explicitly entrusted by Lenya with the there is no consistency in copyright protection COLUMN protection of the integrity of Weill's music, the internationally, almost every country recog­ By Kim Kowalke Foundation had no choice but to protest co the nizes the need to safeguard intellectual prop­ publisher who had licensed the performance erty. Ever since the gradual demise of the ''TODSUNDEN VERBOTEN" headlined a and to demand restoration of the piece to a patronage system of support for composers tiny article that appeared in several German recognizable approximation of Weill 's score or around 1800, they have had to struggle, of.ten newspapers last January. Almost certainly de­ cancellation of the production. We had unsuccessfully, to make a living for them­ rived from a common press release, the cryp­ intervened in the same way a year before selves and their dependents solely through tic clippings read: ''Bremen. The Estate of when the prestigious theater in Bochum had composition. Mozart, as everyone who has Kurt Weill (Weill-Foundation, located in New produced the 's travesty of seen Amadeus knows, failed; Beethoven was York) have raised objections to Torsten Fis­ Maliagonny, even though Lenya had successful only by shrewd simultaneous publi­ cher's production of Die sieben Todsunden der expressly forbidden Universal Edition to cations in various countries that thwarted the Kleinbii:rger. On this basis. the licensing divi­ license that version. Last October, we also publishing pirates who would have stolen his sion of the publisher B. Schott's Sohne has had to stop a production of The Threepenny income by copying the first edition. Rossini forbidden further performances of this Bre­ Oj>era in Chicago because the theater had couldn · t prevent hacks from sitting in the au­ men-version." conflated three translations, re-written the dience at the first performance of his operas Within a week, the Foundation was receiv­ score for a rock band, and failed to obtain a and jotting down approximations of his scores ing expressions of concern from contacts in performing license from anyone. for illegitimate sale to competing theaters. Germany. "What were we doing? Didn't we Compelled by a moral imperative and bound Verdi withheld "Ladonna e mobile" from tbe understand that we were acquiring the repu­ by its contracts with agents and adaptors, the first Duke of Mantua until the eleventh hour, tation of arbitrarily halting productions by im­ Foundation has no option in such matters. knowing that without such precautions the portant theaters? Soon, no institution would These are not whimsical decisions based upon catchy tune would be stolen before the curtain risk a Weill piece, if the Foundation could in· some impractical notion of aesthetic taste or rose. As technology advanced, the need for tervene, apparently without justification." musical snobbery. Nor have we ever acted on copyright protection for both composers' and Coincidentally, American newspapers were political or personal biases. The situation in publishers' stakes became even more critical, reporting a controversy, apparently similar in Bremen differs with that presented by the with Wagner playing a crucial role in develop­ substance, that was swirling around Samuel Endgame affair in Boston. There not one ment of the concept of music as property just Beckett's Endgame at the American Reper­ word of the author's text had been altered: as "real" as real estate. Whether copyright tory Theatre in Boston. Authors, or heirs of only directorial interpretation of stage endures for 70 years after the death of the authors (in our case), were stifling creativity directions a,nd setting was in question creator (Germany and ), 75 years after in the theater by insisting on purist interpreta­ (although Beckett might weU argue, were he the date of creation (United States), or 25 tions. so inclined, that this information is the years after first performance (Berne Union), The news release that apparently ''score" of his minimalist dr3111a, a vital aspect the contemporary composer bas gained some originated in the press office of U1e Bremer of the text, and no less relevant than Weill's legal basics to insure that his lifelong efforts Schauspielhaus did not state any cause for the music for Die sieben T/Jdsiinilen). cannot be usurped or distorted. Of course, Weill Foundation's action. Unless the reader But in Bochum, Bremen, and Chicago, the enforcement of copyright protection is compared the news item with reviews of the Weill's music had been mutilated beyond rec­ never easy, especially since publishers are of­ opening from the previous month, he would ognition. We have often heard the argument ten reluctant to jeopardize ongoing relation­ undoubtedly have assumed that once again that, as a practical man of the theater and a ships with theaters over composers' rights. heirs were making trouble for the Brecht­ composer committed to reaching a mass audi­ But copyright protection offers more than Weill works in German theaters. The ence, Weill himself would have approved such the hope that a composer will benefit equita­ Foundation had acted on the basis of the modifications for the means of smaller the. bly from exploitation of his music by others. reviews picked up by one of our clipping aters. Perhaps, but that is a prerogative of the It, along with the related notion of ''droit services. Most were as informative as this creator only; copyright protection endows moral" or moral right. represents the only one.: him with the right to accept or reject the alter­ possibility that an author will be able to control Kurt Weill's ballet with singing from 1932 ation of his intellectual property. And although the parameters for public presentation of his [sic), '' Die sieben Todsilnden der Weill often compromised his original inten­ artistic, often higWy self-revelatory expres­ Kleinbiirger," has been staged by tions during the creative process because of sion. This is especially crucial in Weill's case, Torsten Fischer as a Schau.spiel with the exigencies of the commercial theater in since very few of his works have escaped tam­ music ...The weakest point of the both Europe and America, the record of his pering that has now become accepted "per­ production is the musical side: there's no attitude toward alteration of his compositions formance practice." Copyright statutes way that a trio can replace Weill's precise after the fact is unambiguous. He was espe­ throughout the world are the sole insurance and razor-sharp orchestral language, cially adamant about his orchestrations; they that a ''child of creativity" can establish its especially when the musicians continuaUy we.re the substance of his art, the personal identity indelibly enough to reflect accurately proved that they weren' t qualified to be signature that could not be erased without los­ the intentions of its creators. Soon enough in Weill-interpreters. The family, four­ ing the identity of the creator, the aspect of any territory, that offspring enters the public voiced in the original, was sung here by musical theater he could control most inde­ domain to be re-interpreted, re-named, re­ Alexander Grill with more notes wrong pendently. Voices as persuasive as Brecht's functioned, re-scored, re-worked, re-ar­ than right. For the chorales. the piano and Adorno 's could not entice Weill to allow ranged. player sang along weakly in a fatal alteration of the orchestrations for Die Drei­ The Kurt Weill Foundation has been en­ attempt at economy. groschenoper, still the score most tantalizing trusted with the <--are of Weill 's artistic legacy. From such reviews, we learned that 1) a ballet for would-be revisionists. But Weill recog­ Chartered expressly to promote and protect, with no spoken dialogue originally was being nized clearly the difference between popular the Foundation will continue to support au­ presented as a with music; 2) it was being exploitation of individual ''hit numbers" out­ thentic productions and performances which produced under a spurious title ("der side the theater- which he and Lenya encour­ illuminate his intentions. But until Weill's Kleinbiirger" was added after Weill 's death by aged in versions as different as her own and works enter the public domain, if theaters Helene Weigel wfthout Lenya's consent): 3) 's-and "the real thing" - want to produce a play with music for three Weill's magnificent symphonic score had been the production of the "art work'' in its original instruments, let them commission new reduced, without permission, for three format. pieces. Kurt Weill didn't write any. Rewriting instruments; 4) the four vocal parts of the Copyright is the only assurance for a com­ bis music, along with sloth and greed, will be family in Lousiana had miraculously been sung poser that his intangible property will be pro· considered Verboten Todsilnden.

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE4 50 Years Later: The Americanization of Weill and Lenya

By Henry Marx Almost 50 years ago-10 September 1935-Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya stepped off the ocean liner U.S.S. Majestic and onto New York's 57th Street pier. Weill had come to su­ pervise his score for , Franz Werfel's lavish Biblical drama, which was to begin rehearsals under Max Reinhardt almost immediately. None of the three creators could yet be considered emigres, inasmuch as Aus­ tria still provided a haven for Werfel and Reinhardt, while Weill fully intended to return to France, where he had found asylum in 1933. Weill's acceptance in France had been short-lived. He had arrived in Paris as the dar­ ling of the avant-garde, but within a year his star was on the descendant. Lenya had been in Paris, too, for performances of , Mahagonny Songspiel, and the world pre­ miere of Die sieben Todsunden, then to Rome for another Mahagonny with Maurice Abravanel, and rejoined Weill in London in 1933 for Anna-Anna (the English version of Die sieben Todsiinden). Lenya, extremely drawn to The Eternal Road, had expressed to Weill her interest in playing a part, no matter how small, and they had left it at that. She Lenya and Weill in California, ea. 1946. probably accompanied Weill to New York sim­ ply "for the ride" and for moral support, but By the time The Eternal Road was finally never lost his heavy German accent, he pre­ with the thought of her casting in the backs of produced early in 1937, Weill had made- the ferred English conversation. When 1 met Weill both of their minds. What was not generally transition from visitor to resident of this coun­ for the ftrst time (I believe it was in 1947. dur­ known at the time-and remains unknown to try. America afforded him greater anonymity ing the run of Street Scene), I interviewed him most- is that Weill and Lenya had separated than had France: his European music was not for a German-language newspaper. I met him in the late Twenties, obtaining a formal di­ known here and his reputation as Germany's in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel and vorce in 1932. They remained on friendly "enfant-terrible" had reached probably only greeted him in German (as I had done in all of terms throughout the years of separation anq the cultural elite; The Threepenny Opera had my interviews with German- or Austrian-born divorce, but did not remarry for some time. premiered on Broadway in early 1933, but ran artists); he cut me off without letting me finish As The Eternal Road was repeatedly post­ only 12 performances. He was given a fresh my first sentence, and immediately switched poned-not reaching the stage of the Manhat­ start, and even before The Eternal Road was to English! tan Opera House until January 1937- il finally mounted, Weill saw his first American After his first years in America, Weill re­ became clear lo both Weill and Lenya that musical produced: . A collabo­ duced his contacts with refugee circles. On 24 they would remain in the United States; they ration with Paul Green, johnny earned Weill August 1944, he wrote to Lenya about, "one were remarried early in 1937. no more than a succes d'estime. His music was of the worst gatherings of refugees I have Their return to married life was not the only still strongly influenced by his European expe­ ever gone through," a dinner party in Holly­ major change in the early years of their Amer­ riences (as was, of course, also the case with wood. "I begin to think that we are almost the ican stay. They quickly began their assimila­ his music for The Eternal Road, which was only ones of all these people who have found tion of the American scene (going to a actually composed in France). but the seeds American friends and really live in this coun­ gangster movie the day they arrived) and got were sown. try," he wrote. "They are still living in Eu­ to know many of the artists who would figure Weill perhaps analyzed the musical situation rope. Well, t'hell with them:' so prominently in their careers. At the invita­ of America more pragmatically than some Did Weill overdo the process of ''Americani­ tion of Ira Gershwin (whom they had met in other refugee composers. To him it became zation''? Did he fit the category for whom the Berlin during the run of Die Dreigroscheno­ clear early that he would have to enter Broad­ philosopher Ernst Bloch coined the phrase per), they attended a rehearsal of Porgy and way, the mainstream of American musical the­ '' Instant American" (Schnellamerikaner)? Bess, which had its premiere at New York's ater. To do this, he might have been better Bloch described such refugees with some dis­ Alvin Theatre within a month of their arrival. equipped than most of the others: he was taste: The Instant American, he said, Weill, influenced by American as early as younger, had proven his mettle in many musi­ wants to make a clean break with the other 1925, for the first time experienced this musi­ cal arenas already, and had an unfailing theatri­ side. He even disdains speaking German; his cal idiom on its native turf. Weill and Lenya cal instinct. hatred of Germany is sprouting into self-hate. embraced most aspects of American life read­ Once he decided to stay in this country, he Psychologically, such renunciatioo is under­ ily, in stark contrast to their former collabora­ also made up his mind not to look back. ln the standable, particularly in the case ofJ ewish im­ first three or four years of his stay in America, migrants ; what shock and horror lies behind tor, (who landed in New York them! They do not want lo remember Ger­ for a temporary stay five days after the Porgy he might still have condoned speaking Ger­ many any more . ... But the door is locked a bit premiere), and most of the other artists who man; after 1939 even his letters to Lenya too fast. the arrival in America is announced a sought in America a refuge from Hitler. were written in English and, although he bit too sensationally. Moreover, these types

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGES react as if they imagined Hiller to be capable of As early as 1940, less than five years after his actually lasting a thousand years. As bankrnpt arrival in New York. We ill defined his artistic bourgeois. they have drawn a line between aims in a revealing interview with William G. them and Germany; they have written it off. King of the New rvrk Sun: When, barely 18 months after his arrival. l want to use whatever gifts I have for practical film producer Walter Wanger questioned his purposes, not waste them on things which ability to write the music for a typically Ameri­ have no life , or which have Lo be kept alive by artificial means. That's why I am in the theater. can movie because he was "not enough of an the commercial theater.... American," Weill answered him, as be told You hear a lot of talk about the American op­ Lenya in a letter of 15 March 1937, "that the era that's going to come along some day. It's most American of all composers, Irving my opinion that we can and wiU develop a musi­ Berlin, is a Russian Jew, and I am a German cal dramatic form in this country. but I don't Jew-that's the whole difference" -blithely think it will be called "opera" or that it wiU ignoring the fact that Berlin had come here as grow out of the opera .... IL will develop from a child. and remain a part of lhe American theater­ The composer became indeed an "Instant Broadway theater, if you like. More than any­ one else, I want to have a part in that American," but with few of the characteristics development. attributed them by Bloch. There seems to be These were the words of an artist who little evidence of self-hate in any of Weill's ut­ knew exactly where he was going. At the time terances, no belief that Hitler either was rid­ of this interview, only Johnny John.son and ing the wave of the future or reflected the Knickerbocker Holiday had been produced. character of the people of Germany. Accord­ He had also composed Railroads on Parade ing to Lenya, after Die Burgsclzaft Weill out­ for tl1e New York W)rld's Fair of 1939-and The lined his compositional prpjects for many Hollywood, 1938 of Magna Carta, first performed on years. The unhappy events of 1933-35-the the radio the day after the Sun interview. Nei­ loss of his German bank account, the failure of playwright's apologists that Weill, by his sur­ ther the folk opera Davy Crockett nor Marie galante and A Kingdom for a Cow, the Africanus had proceeded beyond preliminary render to Broadway, had more or less sacri­ cancellation of his contract with Universal Edi­ drafts; both projects were abandoned by the tion. the poor reception of bis Symphony-all ficed his musical integrity, sounds a bit like sour grapes. In his biography of Brecht end of 1939. Many more such plans- inciden­ but scrapped any previous plans long before tally all based on American themes-were he arrived in New York. "The events in Ger­ (1976), the German Klaus Volker hardly dis­ guises his swipes at Weill: The Seven Deadly never realized: a musical-The Common many wounded him deeply,'' Lenya said in an Glory for the WPA Theater; another, Moby Sins did not have the accustomed success, interview. but Weill seems to have been more Dick; and a musical adaptation of Herman and because of this Weill never again risked a concerned with healing those wounds­ Wouk's novel Aurora Dawn. He e..xpressed of­ collaboration with Brecht. The composer, be through his American work-than with la­ ten and eloquently his devotion to the Ameri­ said menting them. can commercial theater as a forum for the Weill's adaptation to his ne w surroundings was going through a stage in which all music dissemination of music, and as the cradle of was noted by many. Among the important was anathema to him. He then did what Brecht himself tried to do later, but without success: "American opera." members of the theatrical community he met At every turn Weill defended his work in soon after his arrival was Harold Clurman, he conquered Broadway. But it was a pyrrhic victory on Weill's part, because Broadway took America against all comers. In a letter to Le­ who with Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg him lo itself and robbed his music of all its nya of 24 September 1942, he reported his had founded the Group Theatre, which pro­ edge.... Brecht , though anxious to find an rebuttal of a comment by . duced johnny Johnson. Almost four decades American public. remained an outsider and a [She) started that old business about the differ­ later, Clurman was to write of Weill in his auto­ foreigner. He had no idea ofjettisoning his prin­ ent quality of music here in America. I cut it biography, All People Are Famous: ciples as a writer. The examples of his friends short by saying, "Never mind those old Ger­ His powers of assimilation were extraordinary. Kurt Weill and showed him what man songs-we are in America now and Broad­ He could write music in any country so that it sacrifice one had to make as an artist in order way is tougher than the Kurfiirstendamm." would seem as if he were a native. He did in to become an American. Thal stopped her. fact write some good " French'' and ''English" Recent studies have conclusively demon­ When Theodore W. Adorno wrote to him a music during his stays in Paris and London. If strated that Weill's reluctance to work with conciliatory letter on behalf of Brecht in the he had landed among the Hottentots, he would Brecht in America, despite the playwright's hope that he would sanction an all-black pro­ have become the outstanding Hottentot com­ continual overtures, stemmed principally poser of the Hottentot theater. Weill was aU duction of The Threepenny Opera in California. theater and all "mask." from Brecht's odious character and indefensi­ Weill told Lenya (in a letter of 8 April 1942) In an aside during a Weill symposium in New ble exploitation of Weill in their previous busi­ that he had flatly rejected Adorno 's over­ York in 1977, I asked Clurman whether this ness dealings. tures-particularly in the critic's condemna­ often-quoted statement was meant to be a Compare Volker's statement with that of tion of Broadway and rose-tinting of Brecht. compliment or an implied criticism. He looked , one of the most astute ob­ "Maybe the main difference between the German and American theater is the fact that at me quizzically, and no answer was forth­ servers of the American theater, wrote in there exist some rules offair play in the Amer­ coming-at least no verbal answer. But his fa­ 1970: cial expression seemed to say, "Let it stand as Fourteen years- after Weill had ned from ican theater," Weill reported having written to it is." Clurman seemed to enjoy such elliptical Berhn. he was able to write Street Scene. a mu­ Adorno. Here again, Weill demonstrates his pronouncements. but when read in context sical microcosm of Manhattan. conveying lhe utter involvement in-if not devotion to-the with his subsequent high praise of Hanns violence, the misery, the sociability, the cau­ American theater. He showed little interest in Eisler's work, it becomes clear that Clurman tious hope, the blighted romance, and the im­ promoting any of his European works: when disliked Weill 's adaptability. It is ironic that mense vitality of Cosmopolis... . With his Der Zar liisst sich pholographieren had its Clurman's original statement is not really cor­ insight. his modesty, and humanity. Weill com­ American premiere at Juilliard in 1949, Weill rect: muchofWeill's "rrench" and "English'' posed a work of art that did not evade lbe truth attended only under pressure from friends. of the corrosive city but also retained a certain It is not generally known that Weill took an music. not to mention his first American wistful beauty. From the contemptuous satire active part in the preparation of the librettos scores and even "'' (1938). of The Rise tmd Fall ofth e City 11/ Mahagomzy was either composed in Germany or based on to the affectionate portrait of Street Scene was of his works, both in America and in Europe. his German music. the measure of Weill's happy experience in Most of his collaborators in America had little Criticism by Brecht and by many of the America. or no experience with musicals. Instead of

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 6 "looking for partners among the steady prac­ recounting how George Gershwin, who knew be recounted in full in this article.) As she titioners," as one of them, Alan Jay Lerner, Dreigroschenoper but did not know that Lotte spearheaded the revival of Weill's German remarked in his autobiography, Weill often re­ Lenja was Mrs. Weill, complained to her about works, Lenya found her American audience cruited his collaborators from the mainstream the "hillbilly singer" on the recording. Lenya and her new style: her voice was huskier now, of contemporary American drama (Green, was amused at the time, although she didn't the edges of Brecht's poetry were softened , and Edwin J. know what "hillbilly" meant. In 1939, she had by Blitzstein. Yet she reached a far broader Mayer). On 12 August 1944, he wrote to Le­ a six-week stint as a cabaret chanteuse at the audience when she played James Bond's nem­ nya: Ruban Bleu, a New York nightclub; her public­ esis than when she played Macheath's mis­ I don't really know why, but it seems that I have ity photograph resembles no one more than tress. become so sure of my craftsmanship, of my Marlene Dietrich. It is perhaps not inferring Weill was perhaps the only one of the Euro­ theater knowledge and of my taste that I could too much to say that she was struggling to find pean composers who came to this country take a dominating position in almost any com­ an image acceptable to Americans and to her­ during the Thirties and Forties, to make suc­ bination .. .. Ira [Gershwin] and Eddie [Ma}•er] self. cessfully the transition from European com­ are following me blindly... . As a matter of fact, I During the war, Lenya recorded "Wie lange poser to American composer, and he has had a had an idea last night of writing a scene for Fire­ noch?" and ''Was bekam des Soldaten Weib?" brand ofFlorenc e myself, which I might do. lasting influence on the most American of all for propaganda broadcasts by the Office of theatrical forms, the musical. How else could Weill's interest in playwriting, whether seri­ War Information-not a star-making engage­ he have done so without becoming completely ous or not, had come to the fore in an earlier ment- and appeared on Broadway and on tour Americanized, protesting "gently," as he put letter to Lenya (12 December 1942): as a maid in Candle in the Wind, Maxwell An­ it, against Life Magazine's description of him There is no doubt in my mind that you can be a derson's wartime drama (1942). And in 1945, as a "German composer"? terrific success in this country if we only get the Lenya played the sex-starved Duchess de Although I was born in Germany," he told the right play. I thought myself of sitting down and Medici in The Firebrand of Florence. The mu­ magazine, "I do not consider myself a 'German writing one. The only thing I couldn't do is sical flopped and so did Lenya-despite her composer.' The Nazis obviously did not con­ write good dialogue- and then there are very lavish entrance (in a satin sedan borne by Nu­ sider me as such either, and I left their country few people who can do that. But the rest we bian slaves) and her featured number ("Sing (an arrangement which suited both me and my could do ourselves. rulers admirably) in 1933. I am an American Me Not a Ballad"). Billy Rose went so far as citizen, and during my dozen years in this coun­ Lenya's American career had never taken to suggest that Lenya had been cast only be­ try have composed exclusively for the Ameri­ off, and by 1945, was drawing to a close-a cause she was the composer's wife. After this can stage.... 1 would appreciate your temporary close, but a genuine one. She had debacle, Lenya retired to New City, to card straightening out your readers on this matter. been cast in The Eternal Road, but her per­ games and neighbors, and only Weill's death in Today, almost 40 years later, such a formances as the Witch of Endor and Miriam 1950 and the determination of her second hus­ "straightening out" does not seem to be nec­ (Moses' sister), had failed to attract much at­ band, George Davis, convinced Lenya to re­ essary anymore. tention. Her European successes were un­ turn to the stage. (The result, her second known to Americans: she was fond of American career, is a subject far too large to

Early publicity photo in America Photo: George Platt Lynes

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE7 I REMEMBER Lenya's Return to Berlin We began working intensely. Every morn­ By Andreas Meyer-Hanno ing the two of us took the subway to East Berlin, left our passports with the doorman of the German State Library, and rummaged Translated by Lys Symonette were located. This presented no problems, through the gigantic tomes of newspapers and since the Wall was not erected until 1961, per­ music journals of the 1920s and early 1930s The legend of Brecht and Weill cast its shadow manently separating the two parts of the city. over my entire youth. I was born in Berlin in for articles about WeiU and his work. Since Le­ West Berliners still crossed in droves to enjoy nya had a fairly accurate chronology of per­ 1932, and was 13 years old at the end of the Brecht's stagings, which were making history formances, we found an abundance of war. For the postwar generation, Die Drei­ at the Theater am Schiftbauerdamm, home of materials and copied them. In the late after­ groschenoper had been something long-missed the Berliner Ensemble. and almost regained. Our parents had told us noon, when we were tired and our fingers about the wondrous world premiere in 1928- One day, Hans Knudsen, my professor of were black from dusty papers, we returned to but how much the Holocaust and World War II theater arts, asked to see me. Lotte Lenya, West Berlin. had scarred the world's face in 17 years! Small Kurt Weill's widow, was staying in West Although I knew that Weill and Brecht's re­ wonder then that my first encounter with the BerLin and asking his advice. She needed a re­ lationship had not been the best during the work proved to be a disappointment. ln search assistant who might help her find docu­ years of exile and artistic separation, I said to Berlin's Hebbel Theater, spared by the bombs ments concerning Weill. Would I like to help Lenya one day, "Brecht lives just one kilome­ but surrounded by a landscape of ruins, Die her?- ter from here. Why don't you go to see him? Dreigroschenoper was the first work to be per­ What a question! A chance to meet the idol You share a great past- why don't you just cut formed, and as Mr. Peachum might have said, of my youth, to work with her, to see her the Gordian Knot?" "Die Verhaltnisse sie waren nicht so" -cir­ transformed from legend to reality- I immedi­ She hesitated for a moment and then said cumstances wouldn't have it so. The play, ately accepted. The next day, my heart beat­ decisively, "All right. But let's do it right written for a specific political situation, lacked ing rapidly, I went to Wilmersdorf, where away." relevance in postwar Berlin and seemed to be Lenya and her second husband, George It was noon. I called the Berliner Ensemble, merely an anachronism which kindled no nos­ Davis, had rented a nice, middle-class apart­ and was given Brecht's private number as talgic charm. ment. soon as I said that Lenya wanted to contact However, the music retained its fascina­ After a few minutes, my uneasiness left me. him. We called the Dorotheenstrasse, and He­ tion. Carefully hidden behind bookshelves Lenya- red-haired, fragile, with that jutting, lene Weigel answered the phone . Yes, we along with the works of Mann, We rfeJ, and determined chin, and the knowing eyes so full should come right away. Brecht was just tak­ Kafka, scratched 78's had survived the war. of wit-was not one of those home-comers ing a short nap. Then as ever, Lenya's style and voice, her so­ speechless with pain over the loss of by-gone Leaving the Library, we walked over the berly arresting yet simultaneously poetic in­ Berlin. Of course, she did not deny her emo­ Weidendamm Bridge (with the Schiffbauer­ terpretation- still unrivalled-bore the seal of tions, but her practicality made her accept the damm Tbeater to the left), along the Frie­ authenticity. As youngsters, my friends and I city's rebirth. She, George, and I became drichstrasse and finally to the old house where were practically addicted to Lenya and played friends from the start; indeed. it was as if we Brecht lived. the few recordings that were available (two had known each other forever and a day. We Weigel and Lenya embraced, and Weigel songs from Happy End, highlights from Die became "Wahlverwandte," relatives by signaled us to keep quiet because the Meister Dreigroschenoperand Mahagonny) again and choice. was still asleep. We tip-toed through the spa- again. In 1949, Brecht-only as a visitor-can1e to East Berlin to stage Mother Courage at Max Reinhardt's Deutsche Theater; my mother, musical coach for the theater, was as­ signed to the production. Every morning be­ fore rehearsals, she would meet Helene Weigel in the bomb-scarred Hotel Adlon. Weigel was having trouble with the compli­ cated rhythm of Dessau's music, and would walk to the theater with my mother for a little impromptu coaching. I had graduated from college by this time and was beginning to study musicology and theater arts; frequently 1 was permitted to watch rehearsals. I was fascinated by Brecht's painstaking, softly in­ sinuating, infinitely patient way of rehearsing. I'll never forget his remarks after auditioning one ofmany candidates for the role of Yvette, the "company whore." This particular singer, a product of "classical" training, tried to show off her vocal technique. But when she left the room, Brecht said to my mother, "Terrible! She has gone and learned how to sing, and now she can't sing any more." By 1955, my dissertation was reaching its final stages; almost every day I crossed the borders to get to the State Library in East In a decaying railyard, Lenya s urveys Berlin, 1955. Berlin, where important research materials

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGES cious apartment, and Weigel served tea. r had never been in Brecht's apartment before. lt was light and airy, furnished with only a few old, heavy wooden tables and chairs. There Mr. President were hardly any pictures; the walls were dec­ orated instead with a variety of old household utensils made of zinc and iron. It was all rather impersonal and surprisingly sparse for the By Lys Symonette for sending the tape. He said again how clearly home of the most financially successful Ger­ he remembered the Chicago performance, man author of the day. but it had style and Within the vast area of ''the unknown how much the presentation had impressed beauty. The entire house exuded serenity and WeiU," it may come as a special surprise to him, and that he and Mrs. Reagan were look­ security, many tbat in 1942 Weill provided melodra­ ing forward to listening to the tape together. We heard a stirring in an adjoining room; matic settings for speaker and orchestra of His easy manner helped me to coUect myself Brecht had awakened. Weigel disappeared to three patriotic American songs, commis­ somewhat, so I managed to teU him some­ tell him of the surprise. He came into the sioned by and Victor Records for thing about the Foundation, its function and room and saw Lenya, who rose. They had not Fight for Freedom, Inc. During the war, Miss goals-but mainly about Weill's motivation for seen each other for many years, a slight hesi­ Hayes performed and recorded these set­ and participation in the recording. I ended up tation, a brightening of his face, an approach, a tings, "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Amer­ by telling Mr. Reagan that the musical materi­ cordial handshake, ahd-immediately-the ica." and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," als were available and that if he would ever question: "When will you be performing with and an original piece, "Beat! Beat! Drums!" care to perform the songs. we would be only us?'' (to a poem by Walt Whitman). too happy to make the necessary arrange­ After 30 years I can't recall the exact con­ Although I knew of the existence of these ments. He laughed, thanked me once more, versation. Brecht's manner was extremely settings, l had never heard them performed and said, "It's been a pleasure talking to you." reserved, butl remember most of all the quiet until, on the occasion of the Kurt Weill Foun­ It was a thrilling experience for me, but be­ friendliness among them. There was much dation's opening in November 1983, Miss yond the excitement. I realized the signifi­ talk about theater, about his theater, and they Ha yes graciously donated her only copy of the cance of these four songs, another important never basked in memories of their shared recording to the Foundation's archives, with addition to the "unknown" Weill. They pro­ past. All conversation centered on the here the modest request o[ a single tape copy for vide eloquent testimony to his love of his new and now: and finally about tomorrow. her personal use. She had made the recording home, his eagerness to participate in the war Since Lenya was preparing for the first of in Chicago for Victor in Weill's presence [Vic­ effort, and his experimentation with new her German recordings for Philips in Ham­ tor M 9091, and it has been out of print for forms- in this case, "spoken songs." For the burg (the ''Berlin Theater Songs" album), many years. Victor recording, Weill offered the foUowing Brecht immediately and spontaneously of­ A first listening to this unique record was an remarks: fered to assist her. Soon after, Lenya flew to unforgettably emotional experience for some­ For years I have been trying to work out a Hamburg for rehearsals, but returned to East one like myself. a refugee from Hitler's Ger­ technique of composition which would make Berlin with my mother to work on the songs many. I don' I know whether it was because of itp ossible to bring togethe r poetry and music with Brecht. Miss Hayes' moving recitation of the words in a "perfect wedding." This is an old prob­ T didn't attend these rehearsals, but my or because of Weill's incredibly sensitive ie m for composers, and 'has been solved in mother reported that, although colored by the treatn1ent of the well-known melodies-most diffe re nt ways. The song form, for instance, psychological approach of the American the­ likely a combination of both-but I am not is a combination of poetry and music, but it ater (so far from Brecht 's vision), Lenya 's in­ ashamed to admit that I had to fight hard to gives the music pre dominance over the terpretations received Brecht's unreserved words. On the other hand, it has been tried hold back the tears. many times to provide a "musical back­ admiration just the same. The rehearsals lo January of this year, I watched the broad­ g round" for the re ading of poetry; but in most must have been inspiring: it was during these cast of the Inaugural Gala for President cases the music gives only the general ahno­ sessions that the interpolations in the third Reagan. As the evening drew to a close, the sphere of the poem without really dramatiz­ verse of "Bilbao-Song" c:-,ime into existence: President thanked the many participating art­ ing the words. What I have been trying to do "Wie ging das jetzt weiter? lch weiss den ists for their generous contributions to past was to write musical settings for the spoke n Text nicht mehr, s'ist schon so lange her.... " and present events of this nature. He singled word which would allow both arts-poetry (''How did thal go again? I don't know the out one event which stood out in his memory and music- to exist next to each othe r and to words any more, it's been such a long as something quite extraordinary: Helen supplement each other into a perfect orga­ nism. In order to achieve this I treat the spo­ time ...") At these times Brecht often ex­ Hayes in Chicago reciting the words to ken word just like the vocal part of a song claimed delightedly: "This is good. Yes, this is "America." I felt an almost eerie sensation and with the same inner relation to the ac­ very good! '· when he spoke about "this tiny woman, Helen companiment as it exis ts in songs or in op­ Lenya 's recording-whose release some Hayes," standing on the large stage, "recit­ eras so that the music really "dramatizes" time later was celebrated by Philips with a ing, not sini,ring" the simple words: "My the meaning of the words. Whe n I write pompous reception and buffet at West Berlin's country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of down these ''spoke n songs" J inclicate ex­ Hotel Kempinski (which would have brought thee I sing." Miss Hayes had held the huge actly the rhythm of the recitation, the value Brecht little joy)-introduced the Weill Re­ crowd absolutely spellbound, President of each syllable . the dynamics (piano and vival to Germany and led to Lenya's record­ Reagan remembered. forte), the expression, the rising and falling ings of the complete Die sieben Tods,11nden, of the voice. In othe r words, r make the spo­ The next morning, I decided to send him a ken word a part of my musical composition. Mahngonny, Die Dreigroschenoper, and Happy copy of the Hayes recording and a shorl letter The perfect ex,ample of what 1 mean by End. Lenya and Brecht didn't coUaborate explaining WeiU 's part in it. Exactly one week calling it "spoken song" is the setting of Walt again (it wouldn't have been feasible during later, on 28 January, I was shocked and Whitman's poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!'' In the Cold War anyway), and after Brecht's amazed to receive a call from the White th"is case I was not bound to any original song death the two widows fell into an unfortunate House! Very politely, a secretary asked me and couJd create m y own free composition. I dispute over royalties from Die siehen Todsz,n­ how I speUed and pronounced my name: she wrote it exactly like a song for solo voice, den. (Dr. Grischa Barfuss, now General Man­ repeated it correctly and then said, "Just a chorus, and orchestra, and the spoke n word ager of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, would minute, I have the President on the phone for gives not only the rhythmical but also the have loved to present the work in Wuppertal, melodic line to the whole composition. 1 was you." Before I could catch my breath, I heard inspired for this composition by the extraor­ that El Dorado of ballet. ln despair, he said, the familiar voice speaking my name ... and aU dinary timeliness of Whitman's poe m which "Each of them wants 60%. Why can't they I could muster to say was, "Oh, Mister Presi­ is a passionate "call tQ arms" to everybody in both have it?") dent!!" _In his personable way, he thanked me the nation.

KU RT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 9 AROUND THE WORLD the sensuality which is also in the character. Apart from Macheath, she was the only singer By Michael Morley who coped with the music, though here too one suspects she had been led astray by the direction. " " was. predictably, assigned to a . gender-indeterminate Jenny, dressed like a middle-aged 0apper in Question Jo all readers: What piece of music boume public and critics alike. For this pro­ cloche hat and grey coat of military cut would you choose as exit music for a produc­ duction, in a city of 3½ million, was as (why?), while the third verse of the "Barbara tion of The Threepenny Opera? (The practice ill-conceived, shapeless. and unprofessional Song" was delivered in a suddenly tough. of using "" is probably so es­ as any I have ever seen. The critics loved it, harsh voice which dinned the message of the tablished by now that it does not qualify as an hailing it as a tough and direct treatment and text into the audience with au the subt.lety of answer.) Something else by Weill, perhaps? giving it the old Brechtian Seal of Approval. an ice pick. Surely the point must be that, if Or maybe a few snatches from German or This is a double-faced medallion bearing the anything, the last verse needs to be even American popular songs of the period? All rea­ critic's own face on one side and the late Ber­ sweeter and more ironically cajoling than what sonable suggestions, though not necessarily tolt's on the other. It's a litUe like one of those has gone before- or, at tbe very least, with to be commended. Eastern Bloc awards that the President al­ the same vocal coloring. Let me rephrase the question-and this is ways makes to himself for good behavior or I have deliberately left detailed comments not simply a guessing game-what would be services rendered, and is always bestowed on on the music till last-mainly because a defi­ the crassest and most ill-advised number a those productions that lhe critic sees as nite "mea culpa" is unfortunately in order. musical (or unmusical) director might hit Brechtian because he thinks he knows what to The Weill Foundation, alerted to potential upon? After seeing the Melbourne Theatre look for and to like: social comment coupled monkey business by suspicious press reports, Company's recent production of The with a little bit of satire and a rough-edged the­ asked me to investigate the production a few Threepenny Opera. I put this question to a col­ atricality (translated in this production into the weeks before the opening. A long telephone league with some familiarity with Weimar cul­ random Nazi salute-for no reason-refer­ conversation with the musical director (a ture. His answer was: "The Horst-Wessel ences to a local brand of dog food, and clumsy former rock star) resulted in his giving an as­ 'Lied'-but no company in the world could and unfocused performances). surance that some of his more outlandish and possibly choose that." Regrettably I had to David Atkins, the actor playing Macheath, bizarre notions on performance, transposi­ disabuse him. After a clumsily knockabout, to­ had last played the Sergeant in The Pirales of tions, and the like, would be discarded. tally apolitical production, Melbourne audi­ Penzance- by all accounts a fluent and funny Maybe he thought I wouldn't get to see the ences happily plodded out of the auditorium performance. He is a light-footed dancer production. But how about this for a start: the verse of the ''Jealousy Duet" was transposed into one key, the chorus into another; "Mack the Knife" was sung in a key so remote and The Threepenny Opera. Melbourne lowered in pitch that it sounded like the Grand Theatre Co., Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. Inquisitor's Aria from Do,1 Carlo; "The Song of Solidarity" (not in Eisler's setting) was in­ October-November 1984 serted to accompany the scene in which Polly takes over as bank manager(!); and for ''The Ballad of Sexual Obsession" we were treated to the spectacle of said music director accom­ humming that cheerful Nazi anthem and no standing about 5'2" in his lifts and looking panying Mrs. Peachum on the guitar, wander­ doubt thinking that dear old Kurt had a lovely around 28. With a Macheath 1.ike this, it would ing around the stage after her (two characters tine in up-tempo marching numbers. have seemed better to re-title the play The in search of an action?) and finally coming to But the tale of horror does not end there. I Halfpenny . In the "Cannon Song," rest flat on his back between her legs and saw the production in its last week of a lengthy he looked like Tiger Brown's youngest son, or strumming his chords up her skirts! I could go run. Some ten days previously, the actor play­ a youthful head prefect to his public school on, but I would rather spare lhe feelings of the ing Mr. Peachum had gashed himself so badly headmaster. He pranced and skipped around readers. on the awkward set (perpendicular, slippery the stage like a kitten on warm briquettes, and The only conceivable morals to be drawn steps everywhere) that he was hospitalized although his singing was clever, musical, and from all this are: never trust an Australian and the director stepped into the part. (Un­ always on the note, the overall effect was of a rock musician's verbal assurances. and don' t derstudies are, strangely, not provided by a hyper-active tap dancer in search of a chorus allow the Melbourne Theatre Company to company which is the largest and most heavily line. A piece of casting so bizarre and so tackle Brecht/Weill without being certain that subsidized theater company in Australia.) wrong that it makes one wonder whether the someone with musical knowledge sits in on Now, it has always been an assumption of director had ever watched a shark at close the rehearsals. Apparently, the assistant mu­ mine that any director worth his salt would quarters: the piscine comparison that here sical director of the Victorian State Opera was actually know at least 50% of the play from sprang to mind was with a toothless goldfish. asked in to sort things out and left after a day memory when the first-night curtain goes The only performances worth noting were in a state of despair. We now breathlessly up-more, if he had acting experience him­ an outstanding Polly from Janet Andrewartha await a treatment of The Threej)e1my Opera self, as had Graeme Blundell, the director of and a suitably lugubrious Tiger Brown from which incorporates "Waltzing Matilda'' and is this production. Not so. Ten days after the Peter Cummins who balanced bursts of en­ set in Newport, Rhode Island, at the time of accident, Blundell, playing Peachum, was still ergy witb moments of tired reflection on what Australia's victory in the An1erica's Cup. I am "on book" and managed to get it wrong even might have been. Polly in particular was a de­ sure the Melbourne Theatre Company could witb script in hand. light-clear-voiced and managing to be naive be easily encouraged to engage the rock These anecdotes would be trivial, even ir­ without sliding into coy naivete, direct when group "Meo At \\brk" to jolly up Weill's oth­ relevant if they did not say something about the part called for it and adept at suggesting erwise clearly unsatisfactory score. the production and its reception bv the Mel-

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 10 MEMORABLE SELECTIONS FROM CURRENT REVIEWS CULLED FROM OUR CLIPPING SERVICES German-to-English Translations by Lys Symonette

THE THREEPENNY OPERA, WELSH NATIONAL OPERA MAH!lGONNYIN TOKYO TOUR The Fujiwara Opera can boast a remarkable production or one of the rarely performed operatic treasures of our century: the Brecht-Weill Rise There is also much monkeying with a text that is, for heaven's sake, still and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. 1 attended the first or four perform­ in copyright. 'The Morita! does not launch the proceedings, but is shoved ances on October 14 at Toshi Centre Hall. Makoto Sato, setting the work into the second act. One's spirits were temporarily raised when Polly in the Thirties- part period Berlin, part American megalopolis, and part rightly got "Pirate Jenny," but sunk again in sheer disbelief when Jenny got Tokyo of our day-paced well with vignettes which depicted the irony and it too, in toto. The single interval is inse rted arbitrarily in the middle of the sinister background without over-emphasizing either. The deeply Brecht's Act 2, after dialogue. The whole Fidelio- finale is cut (but committed actor-singe rs. intelligently costumed by Kikuko Ogata, the WNO already has its own Fidelio-parody in Kupfer's production) and in blended well with Nobuyuli Abe's clever sets. Among the members of the its place we get the hitherto missing second-act finale , with Macheath first of tl1e two alternative casts I admired the Leokadia of Aiko Kori, the hanged and the whore Jenny transformed into a leather-jacketed revolu­ Jenny of Kimika Higoshi. the Fatty or Tohitaka Mori and the Trinity Moses tioniste waving a red flag .... In the right circumstances Roger Bryson ofYoshiaki Takezawa. could be a formidable Pe achum: al first I thought the notion of dressing Jason Roussos this arch-exploiter of the poor as Karl Marx might be a pleasantly acid, Opera Magazine, London new-Right joke, but alas it was not intended to be .... This was a truly Oct. 1984 dreadful evening in the theatre. How was it all.owed to happen? Ro dney Milnes IN GERA, GDR PREMlERE The Financial Times, London For these songs and lieder, duets, marches and choruses Weill takes up 3 January 1985 the style of The Threepenny Opera and-under the influence of Busoni's classicism-develops it further. With great mastery and superb melodic inspiration he makes use of established forms- social dances and most or MARTHA MODLIN BREMEN MAHAGONNY aU marches- and changes them into something of his own. The final goal is In the Fifties her name was practicaUy synonymous with the images of illumination. In 1929 Weill had described "gestic music'' as a forceful way Kundry. Isolde, Briinnhilde, With these roles Martha Modi enjoyed tri­ of composing the rhythm of language and this is how he works here as umphs in Bayreuth, in Vienna. in New York. While these have become well. He is writing for singing actors; however he now demands a fuU memories-happy ones-the phenomenon of one of the most radiant symphony orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, piano, stage personalities of our time is by no means a thing of the past: Martha harp). The Finale is formed like a cantata, taking up two motives from the Mod!, who will soon be 75 ("Go ahead and print it!") is still active in the play (Fennimore's song) but stylisticaUy sets itself far apart- as abstract theater. In the Bremen prerniere of Brecht/Weill's opera Ait/stieg imd Fall as a picture of hope at a time without hope could possibly be. der Stadt Mahagonny on January 6. she will take on the role of Leocadia Musik und Gesellschaft, Berlin (East) Begbick. January 1985 It will be the thirteenth staging or the work for her, ever since Buckwitz first cast the erstwhile dramatic soprano in the complex role of the lusty DER SJLBERSEE IN RECKLINGHAUSEN, FRG whorehouse madame. Do such frequent interpretations of the same role ·•A play with music by Kaiser and We ill." This is how Der Silbersee was result in monotony? The answer is a decisive NO. Because every time. first announce d by Unive rsal Edition in Vienna. The solid ensemble of the new aspects of tl1e character open themselves up to fres h and surprising Ruhrfestspiele has taken this work of 16 complete musical numbers with possibilities. spoken text in between ;md, after an intermission of 32 years, returned it Gerhart Asche to the consciousness of the Federal Republic. Kurier am Sonntag, Bremen We ill conceived the work with a full-grown overture. Like the songs, it 30 Decembe r 1984 contains aU of the characteristic elements of his style since 1919 [sic]: rhythms of the Charleston, Tango and Foxtrot turn up-although perhaps "TRASH FROM CHAOS" not so consistently as in Die Dreigroschenoper. Elements of jazz are just as Enter one Ms. Jayne County-a person so manifestly due the title of unmistakable as Weill's polyphonic strength. The music is inseparably Queen of Trash that she doesn't even have to bother lo stake her claim to merged with the metaphoric, great beauty or 's language .... it. Wolfgang Florey led the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra securely "So now I've also formed a band; they're aU northern boys, and they through a successful performance." play a really hard, dirty sound. The guitar player is very young (he's only Westdeutsche AIJgemeine, Dortmund 17), and he's a trained classical guitar player. too. They're a great band, 18 February 1985 and all they need is someone to give them some direction, which is where I come in ." "Ensemble Lifls Up a Treasure with "Silbersee'' She slips on a song from Brecht and Weill's "Threepenny Opera," the Headline perfect addition to the atmosphere. Ever thought of covering any of their Recklinghauser Zeitung, Recklinghausen music? 2 February 1985 ''Oh, I'd just love to do one; King Kurt did a version of "Mack the Knife," but I didn't reckon much to that. I'd like to do one much more in HISTORY OF OPERA: MUSTCAL THEATER JN ITS DI­ the vein of the original song. Half in English, half in Ge rman, like Bowie did VERSITY with "He roes," and give it a sort of "Heroes" feel. by Werner Oehlmann Tibet Headline: "A Champion for the Cause of Kurt Weill." Oe hlmann's plea in Sounds,London the defense of Kurt Weill (1900-1950) amounts to a virtual vindication or 12 January 1985 his ho nor. He declares him to be "the creator of a uniquely American form of opera, developed from elements of the popular theater." He confirms ''LOU REED: Now thal he's 40, he's one happy singer" this thesis convincingly through analysis or his most important works, of ... "I want to be the rock'n'roll Kurt WeiU," said Reed .... '' My interest which only Street Scene. also of literary importance. has become known has been in one reaUy simple guiding light idea: Take rock'n'roU, the pop here. Clearly, an initiative has been laken, which strongly suggests a fol­ format. and make it for adults, with s ubject matter for adults written so low-up. adults, like myself, could listen to it." Alfons Neukirchen Gary Graff Rhe inische Post, Dusseldorf Knight-Ridder Newspapers 12 January 1985 2 November 1984

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 11 Correspondence fron1 the Archives By David Fameth

The correspondence collection of any manuscript repository Dreyfus, Albert Einstein, Ira Gershwin, Hans Heinsheimer, holds valuable treasures which can be a source of inspiration for Serge Koussevitzky, , Arthur Lyons, Darius scholars and researchers. Constantly on the prowl for a previ­ Milhaud, Max Reinhardt, Leah Salisbury, Alma Maria Werfel, ously unknown fact or connection, the historian uses the informa­ Bruno Walter, and Herman Wouk. There are 400 letters between tion gleaned from letters as a "looking-glass" into the past. In Weill and Lenya, Lenya's personal correspondence, large files of addition to clarifying details concerning known information, let­ letters regarding specific productions, and voluminous publisher ters often provide insigh.ts into unrealized projects, relationships correspondence. among collaborators, private thoughts, and philosophical atti­ Again we must ask: What is missing? Obviously, much of the tudes. early correspondence has not yet found its way to the archives. Studying any body of correspondence often raises more ques­ Virtually the only extant correspondence between 1900 and 1933 tions than are answered. What is missing? What is the date? Who is the Weill-U.E. and the Weill-Lenya groupings. The Foundation are the people mentioned? Where are the envelopes? Was this currently is administering an active acquisitions effort and several letter actually sent? Was it received? Where did it come from? important items have already come to light. Copies of some early When did the archive receive it? Did the author really mean what family letters were made available by the late Alicia Bing, and he wrote? etc, etc. It is these questions that make a body of cor­ most recently, the Foundation acquired photocopies of photo­ respondence seem almost as alive as the person who created it. copies of early letters which are held by the Akademie der Kiinste The Weill/Lenya Archive at Yale University and the Weill-Le­ in Berlin. From this last acquisition, we learned that Weill really nya Research Center of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music hold had composed a symphonic poem based on a text by Rainer Maria originals and photocopies of numerous letters which have never Rilke. The poem text has now been identified and Weill provides a been thoroughly investigated. This article offers a brief sampling complete synopsis of the programmatic elements. Previously, the of the primary sources which are now open and available for study. work's existence had been known only by a mention in an essay by Due to space limitations, only letters written to or .from Weill have Strobel, but no musical materials have yet been discovered. In been included, even though both repositories hold a wealth of addition, the letters give insights into major influences during his documents created after Weill's death. educational years. Among the letters was a copy of a recital pro­ Jn publishing many of these letters for the first time, I have not gram, probably dating from 1918, showing the premiere perform­ attempted to provide comprehensive annotations, as the archi­ ances of two "duets" by Weill: "Abendlied" and "Maikater.'' vist's responsibility is to organize the resources and make them Weill also served as accompanist for the entire recital. available for study and the scholar's responsibility is to analyze Obviously it is impossible to summarize the importance of any and interpret the contents. The resources now available are vast correspondence coUection in a few short paragraphs. The exam­ enough to support many years of study. There are over 1,500 ples reprinted here do not represent adequately the depth of the letters between Weill and Universal Edition, documenting a re­ material that is being uncovered, and only in superficial ways do markable period in the development of 20th century music. The they elude to the importance of their collective meaning. One collection at Yale University includes over 2,500 pages of corre­ thing is certain: the essence of Kurt Weill, the man and composer, spondence with colleagues and collaborators such as Maurice has not ye t been fully captured in the published literature and Abravanel, Maxwell Anderson, Ernst Josef Aufricht, Marc Blitz­ many secrets are waiting to be discovered in these documents. stein, Bertolt Brecht, Agnes DeMille, Marlene Dietrich, Max

To: Kurt Weill, [Paris] From: , [Paris] Date: J une 1933 Original unaddressed postcard located in the Weill/Lenya Archive, Yale University. Trans­ lation by David Fameth.

9 rue Vignon June l 933 My very dear Weill. You must have felt how much I suffered last night from the tragic frivolity of that hall. But you got him. You cheated him and you won. It is superb. in some ways, the conflict between this comfon-this egoism. and discomfort and altruism of vour work. The two women are astonishing, stir­ tin.g up a superhuman air around themselves. Ten­ der and cruel. that is the tempo of your work in which I have dwelt for the last two days. 1 embrace you. Jean• Now I should work for once. Obverse of postcard to We ill from Jean Cocteau, June 1933 Rt•prudu~d with the permission or the Yale Vniversity Music Library,

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 12 To: Ira Gershwin, Los Angeles We had quite a shock on Wednesday when we heard that Sam Harris got From: Kurt Weill, Suffern, New York very sick. Ae was taken to the hospital for an appendix operation, but they Date: 8 March 1941 found some complications and it seems the doctors were not sure if it is Original letter located in the Library of Con gress. cancer or not. Thank God, since Wednesday the reports are very encour­ Kurt Weill aging and we hope he wiU puU through. Suffern. N. Y. March 8, 1941 The lawyers are stiU working out the contracts for the picture sale. ,tu know that Moss wants us to take the entire first payment (60,000) and Dear Ira, Reinheimer told me it's okay with you.-[ had a letter from Arthur Lyons. I guess i•ou got my letter the same day that I got yours and you will have found the answer to most ofyo ur questions in my letter. Jt was awfully nice He writes llmt you haven't seen Sidney Franklin yet, but that he is l.r)~ng to hear from you. but lam sorry that you didn't feU [sic) weU . l had a lot of 10 work out a deal for us to do the score for "The Play's the Thing" with troubles with Lenya's health. Her pains in the back got worse and worse the Spewacks. That would be a very nice job. and we finally had to take her to a sanatorium to get regular treatments. It William King, musical editor of the "Sun'" wrote me, he saw the show is a muscular rheumatism and very painful and hard to cure, She is back and thought it was "one of the most deLightful evenings in the theatre" home now, but she has to stay in bed most of the time. Also the weather he's ever had and that the score has an "immeasurable" part in the suc­ has been terrible here and since yesterday we are completely snowed in . cess. Virgil Thomson wrote a violent attack against me. 1t was aU very l All this !just mention to show you that Life is not pure fun. personal and his main point was that I am no good any more since I stopped But on the other hand it is lots of fun to have a smash hit. The show is working with Brecht and that I am "constantly avoiding" collaborating doing wonderful business (as you know from your statements). We have with "major poets" (a rather bold statement, don't you think so?). We U, l between 20 and 100 standees in every performance and the audience re­ ;iction is wonderful. Even "" gets a good hand , probably because am used to this kind of attacks from the part ofjealous composers. [n some the song is getting a little more popular. I go about twice a week to check form or another it happens every time l do a n'ew show, on music and lyrics. It is in very good shape. I guess you've got most of We bought a Buick convertible to-day and it seems pretty sure now that the records (Benny Goodman exceUenl!, Reisman good, Sammy Kay not we will buy the house we told you about. so good, Hildegard very good), Tha ven't heard the Duchin record yet. It That's all for this time. A kiss for Lee and love to you two from l.enya came out yesterday. The Lawrence album is musicalJy very good, but her and me. 1•oice sounds a Little shaky. I hear ·s records are wonderful. KURT but it seems he has changed quite a lot: they'll probably go very big with the jitterbugs. I like very much the way Hildegard sings the [l RA GERSHWIN'S NOTES TO THE ABOVE LETTER) songs. She takes them very re.laxed and that is good for U1e lyrics and the music. AU the record shops have big signs in the wfodows "The song hits " Please co1Tect lhem [the proofs) carefull y.. .'': l did oorrect them (and the from Lady in the Dark". Max Dreyfus says the sale of records (especially later proofs) carefully. Jn fact lo such a degree that I sent a special letter to Hildegard) is far above average. my good friend, Dr. Sirmay, the Chappell editor, telling him to be sure to The piano score is just finished printing and I am reading the proofs of see that the Ringmaster (3rd dream. p. 112, Vocal Score) sings: the first dream (or is it "proves"?) today. You will get the firsl dream. Please correct them carefully and as quickly as possible!! !!_I Moss wtlJ write "This is all immaterial and irrelevant! What do you think this is-Gilbert a preface to the piano score. He asked me if I would rather have a musician and SeUivant?" write the preface, but l think it is better when he writes it and explains (The good doctor hadn't dug the rhyme at first hearing.) But my careful­ what we have tried to do. l didn't see much of Moss· [sic]. He is com­ ness got nowhere in this instance. The vocal score still appears with: pletely relaxed and very busy enjoying life, going to parties and nightclubs and in wonderful spirits. You've probably read his very witty article, "The "This is aU immaterial and irrevelant! What do you think this is- Gilbert Saga of Gertie ". He will write some more theatre anecdotes like that and and SeUivant?" publish them in a book. He doesn'1 want to talk about a new show yel.- works in commercial art and to a high degree combines a liberally refined To: [Hanl'\S We ill, Halberstadt) education with truly feminine charm. Human beings such as we, who dan­ From: Kurt Weill, [Be rlin] gle between two worlds, need a support of this kind, otherwise we run the Date: (Spring 1919) danger of sinking into an abyss. Just once I would Like to fall madly in love Copy lacking initial pages located in the Weill-Lenya Research so I could forget about everything else. Jt would be a true blessing. But Cente r, New York. Translation by Lys Symonette. there is something else that has a similar effect on me as I think lo mvself about love: Beethoven. RecenUy I heard the Kreutzersonate at the 1-foch­ To think about working productively is, of course, impossible. Not even ~c;hule. This music brings me to tears: this piece alone-if I were bad­ a little Lied is taking shape. Today I had a very beautiful idea for the begin­ rnuld turn me into a good person.- ning of a CeUo Sonata and I wrote it down right away. But right now I Now you must not t hink that I sit around all day feeling sorry for myself. already feel !Ike tearing it up. I had already come tot.he definite conclusion No, the orchestration makes me very happy, I also practice piano dili­ of giving uµ this scribbLing [Scl1reibere-i) altogether and throw myself totaUy gently, play t.~e Partitur of Walkure and go to the University. Of course. a into the business [Kappellmeislerei). Now suddenly, we Jews lot of mistakes creep into the orchestration [of the "Weise"]. because I am are simply not creative, and when we are. we are destructive rather than reckless enough to be working on it aU on my own. StiU, it would be great constnrctive. And if the young movement in music views the Mahler­ to be able to go through it bar by bar with Wetzler. Also. I have been to rhe Schoenberg tendency as being constructive and heralding the future (as I, theater twice. I laughed idiotically over Pallenberg in an idiotic play. They alas, do too!) then [the movement) consists really of Jews or of shoemak­ say that no laugh is healthier than the one over a stupid joke. Then I went ers with Je1,>ish accents. No Jew could ever write a work like the Moon­ to see in the Berlin [indecipherable). where the "Vorwiirts " ["Onward," a light Sonata. Just the pursuit of this train of though is enough to force the left-wing paper) has its new office. a social drama ''Das Gesetz" [The pen out of one's hand. I want to accomplish this much-and only through Law). It is a very suspenseful play about the time of socialist persecution. Schoenberg could I do it-that I write only when I have to, when it comes reminding me somewhat of [indecipherable) (which by the way I cannot most honestly from I.he depths of my heart. Otherwise it wiUm erely turn stand anymore!) because of its rigidly drawn tendencies; but in compari­ out to be music of the intellect, and I hate that. The "Weise .. comes to me son to other social dramas, which still thrill me-first of aU Else Lasker­ from the heart: I really five in this music; but-I am also ashamed of it! l Schiilers '' Wupper" it fades out completely. However, it was exciting to need poetry to set my ima&>ination into motion; and my imagination is not a learn that there is still something different for which the pubLic (and I 111ean l ;111 bird, it is airplane . Only a smaU consolation is the fact that the young the simplest of Sunday audiences) indicates an interest and that this audi­ composers around me are no better. often even worse. However, they do ence was following with understanding, giving voice to its approval so not aspirt" to such height~ as I do: they set their goals lower and reach enthusiastically that it removed my doubts about the German people to them immediately. I got lo know one of them. who fs already farther along some degree, than I am, but also four years older. He writes c-hamher music-in a tota!Jv When are you going on your next trip and where to? How about your modem, Regerian style , but with a depth and seriousness that is quit~ vacation? By the way. the Berlioz is sen~ng me splendidly and I am very impressive, Yet. he too is not truly productive because he is- at least I grateful lo you. My bed awaits me longingly so as lo cradle me into sooth­ think he is- a Jew. By way of his example I have once more realized. hnw ing sleep, toward a new morning. a new hope- a ne.w disappointment. . .. wonderful it is to be marrying as early ;is possible. if only one ca n find the Good night! suitable creature. His is a brand-new maniage to a beautiful girl- who Kurt.

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 13 To: Dr. [ Hans He insheimer, Universal-Edition , Vienna] tion of copying it. But we cannot deny that this style has set a precedent From: Kurt We ill, Berlin and that today more tha11 half of the young composers from the most Date: 14 October 1929 diverse backgrounds are making their living from it. That's why it's very Photocopies of the Weill-Universal Edition correspondence are easy for the general public to overlook the fact that I myself. who defined located at the Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York. Transla­ this style only a year ago. have in the meantime quietly continued on my tio n by Christopher Hailey. own path. So you see that your arguments are essentially in complete Berlin. 14 October 1929 agreement with my own views. On one point, however, I cannot concur with you: concerning what you say about Berlin and the German provinces. I know the German prov­ Dear Herr Dr.. inces. I grew up there, these days I often travel lo provincial cities and I Thank you very much for your lengthy lener. I was extremely pleased read the papers. The "Spirit of the German Provinces" as portrayed in that you wrote to me about my present situation with such understanding, the papers is deeply reactionary and it is absolutely inconceivable that a with such care and genuine friendship, and what you say is so true and so in new, future-oriented artistic movement could emerge from one of these keeping with my own views, I.hat. primarily on the strength of your letter. cities. In any case opposition to Berlin's theater life cannot be so strong I have decided to withdraw from the planned tv/ksslzick after all. How I will when the Dreigroschenoper, the most daring and revolutionary product of do that without offending a man as powerful as Stefan Grossman. that is this much-maligned Berlin spirit. is enjoying full houses everywhere. No, something I will discuss in detail with Herr Director Hertzka. Although dear friend Heinsheimer, the battle against Berlin being waged in certain these 4 little songs would in no way have distracted me in my more impor­ well-known provincial cirdes is a part of that great offensive which reac­ tant work. I realize that from the standpoint of tactics and above all pres­ tionary forces have launched in recent years. by which means they also tige it is better for me Lo keep my distance from this project. hope to exert influence over the artistic sphere. The provincial intellectu­ Since your letter is kept along such fundamental lines and since r am in als of which you speak have no more ardent a desire than lo come to such complete agreement with your position, you will also allow me lo add Berlin. The developments within the German theater over the last decade something lo these statements of principle. Above aU, I was pleased that have come exclusively from Berlin. from Brahm, from Reinhardt, from you recognized the nature of the stylistic transformation I am undergoing. Jessner and Piscator, and finally from the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. (For there are not many who notice it). But one must date the beginning of Do you really believe one can dismiss the achievements which make Berlin this stylistic transformation much earlier than you do. By far the greater today's unrivalled theater capital of Europe with the expression "commer­ part of Mnhago1111y is already entirely free of the song style and reveals cialized artistic creativity''? And do you really believe one can apply this this new style which in seriousness, ·•stature:· and expressive power description to what I do? I am the only creative musician who for years surpasses everything l have written to date. Almost everything that was has worked consistently and uncompromisingly in the face of opposition added to the Baden-Baden version is written in a completely pure. thor, from the snobs and the aesthetes toward the creation of fundamental oughly responsible style, which I am convinced will endure longe.r than forms of a new. simple. popular musical theater. Even my least significant most of what is produced today. Happy End, too, has been completely music theater works during this time have been written \vith this sense of misunderstood in this regard. Pieces like the big "Heilsarmeemarsch'' responsibility, and out of a constant effort to further a development which I and the "Matrosenlied" go far beyond the song character and the music as consider the only one possible. ls that commercialized artistic activity? a whole is such a clear formal, instrumental, and melodic development Wouldn't it be much easier (and commercially much more profitable) if, beyond Die Dreigroschenoper, that only helpless ignoramuses like the Ger­ like most of the others. I were to carry on and vary the traditional opera man critics could miss it. At issue here is a major evolution which hasn't style a little further and adapt myself from the outset lo the taste and stood still for one moment, and which, as you recognize correctly, has mentality of the provincial opera-goer. No one knows the dangers of made another new advance in the new Mahagomiy scene and in Der Li11d­ Berlin"s literary scene as well as I do. But I have demonstrated that as long berghfl11g, We must not be misled into trivializing what was achieved as one doesn't fall victim to its pitfalls. the most substantial and purest through Die Dreigroschenoper- achieved not only for music, but for musi­ artistic achievements are p0$sible in precisely this atmosphere. It is quite cal life in general-just because some of my new works happen to be badly friendly and justified of you to call my attention to these dangers whenever mounted in a bad play. From our standpoint the fact that my Dreigroscheno­ you have any concrete fears. And that is how I interpret your lines. None­ per music has been commercialized doesn't speak against it. but for it, and theless I wanted to let you know my differing opinions. because I value we would be falling back into our old mistakes if we were to deny sCJme your opinion and because there are so few people with whom r can debate music its importance and artistic value simply because it found its way to these things calmly and objectively. the masses. You are right-I cannot copy this song style mdefinitely, and For today with the best regards, also from Lenja with the works since Mahagomiy have demonstrated that I have no inten- Sincerely your Weill

NOTES 3 . Jean Cocteau to Kurt Weill, June 1933. This postcard is Cocteau 's congratulatory note 1. Kurt \¼!ill to Hanns Weill (?), Spring upon attending the premiere of Die sieben Tndsi,n­ 1919. de11 in Paris. The postcard is not addressed. The ''Weise" referred to in the first paragraph is a symphonic poem inspired by a Rilke poem, "Die 4. Kurt Weill to Ira Gershwin, 8 March Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph 1941. Rt1ke." Weill gives a more complete description of The annotations printed at the end of this letter the work in a 27 March 1919 letter to Hanns. The were supplied by Ira Gershwin when he depositeri only previously known reference to it was in an es­ his correspondence at the Library of Congress. say by Heinrich Strobel wbo likened it lo Scboen­ 5. Darius Milhaud to Kurt We ill, 1942. berg's Pelleas und Melisande. Wetzler was a Producer Russell Lewis had approached Weill to conductor and composer, 1870-1943. reorchestrate Offenbach's La. belle He?ene for a pro­ The ··Berlioz" referred to is almost certainly the duction to star Grace Moore. Weill subsequently Grand lraite d'inslrnm.entation et d'orcliestralion recommended Milhaud to undertake the commis­ modemes (op. 10, 1843). sion. 2 . Kurt Weill to Hans Heiosheimer, 14 6. Kurt Weill to Max and Mah Anderson, 22. October 1929. June 1947. Weill had been considering a lucrative offer from Anderson was in Hollywood working on "Joan of Stefan Grossman to write four songs for a Volks­ Arc," a mm adaptation of his Joan of Lorraine which sliick which Grossman was producing. Jn a 10 Octo­ starred Ingrid Bergman. Names in the text are: ber 1929 letter, Heinsheirner tried to dissuade him Walter "Wanger,'' producer; Victor ''Fleming,'' co­ from the project, saying that his song style should director of "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard serve ·•as a springboard for your return to more of Oz;'' ·· Harold" Freedman, Anderson's agent and profound and substantial musical creations." employed by Brandt & Brandt: ''Bob'' Sherwood, President of the Dramatists Guild in 1937 and a founding member of Playwrights• Company.

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 14 To: Max and Mab Anderson, Hollywood in any atlempt to strengthen Lhe Playwrights Com­ To: Bertolt Brecht, East Berlin From: Kurt WeiU, New York pany. "Joan" is the big thing- in in all s umme r the­ From: Kurt Weill, New City Date: 22 June 1947 atres. I saw Aufricht's friend in Paris who made a Date: 7 January 1950 Copies of original letter located in the very excellent adaptation and seems pretty sure Copy of original letter located in the We ill­ Weill/Lenya Archive at Yale Univers ity and that Hedwige FeuiUere (who is a great actress!) will Lenya Research Center, New York the We ill-Lenya Research Center, New York. play it. - We walked over to your place. Everything New City, Jan. 7, 1950 June 22, 194 7 looks lovely, including the new "cabin" (snme cabin!!). Now it is raining- perfect weather for you. Bert Breehl Dear Max and Mab. Deutsches T heater Judging from your letter, you really seem to have So: come back. We miss you all. the Hollywood blues and I wished you could pack up Love- Kurt Schumannstrasse Berlin and come home. The Road is absolutely lovely this year (or it seems so to me after 6 weeks absence)­ Dear Brecht, but it isn't quite real without you around. I got mad I have not heard from you in a very long time. The when I heard that your contracts aren't signed yet. last time you wrote to me was whe n you told me That's the worst case o[ Hollywood trickery I've that the contract with Felix Bloch Erben has been ever heard and I cannot understand how Wanger dissolved and that you intended to hand over the and Fleming can lend their hands to such machina­ stage representation of Dreigroschenoper to the tions. I hear that Harold is out lhere now, and I hope Suhrkamp Verlag. l answered you at the time that I he will straighten it out (he'd better- because that's would be satisfied with such a solution, provided what we pay agents for!) You are certainly right to that I could come to terms wilh Suhrkamp about the stop working until they sign the papers. conditions of the contract. I had asked you to see to Under the circumstances it doesn't seem to make it that the Suhrkamp Verlag send me the draft of Lhe too much sense for Lenya and me to come out­ contract. Unfortunately, I have heard nothing at all much as we would love Lo see you. But I' m sure you from either you or the Suhrkamp Verlag. Now I couldn't really concentrate on our musical as long as think that we cannot let this situation drag on any your mind is on that picture. So lets [sic] hope you longer. The entire legal situation of Dreigroscheno­ can finish up out there during lbe month ofJu ly and per remains unsolved, because I have given orders be back here around August l st. If you have to stay to Universal Edition not to license any further musi­ much longer than that, we might reconsider the sit· cal performances until the question of stage repre­ uation. sentation has been cleared; and therefore any I would have loved Lo see you and to give you a further performances of this work are illegal. Dr. fresh account ofeverything I have seen-and I have Kurt Hirschfeld, who was here this fall , asked me seen a great deal in those few weeks. On the way for the rights for Zurich and I told him that the Zii­ back I spent a night in Rome-poor and shabby be­ rich Schauspielhaus would have to make a contract tween au that splendor of a lost empire. a day in with me personally. However this could only happen Geneva-a little reminder of pre-war Europe, rich concerning performances outside Germany, and mercyless [sic] and somehow unreal, lhen 2 whe reas performances in Germany have been put days in Paris, even more depressing than the first on ice altogether until we have contractually agreed visit, more restless and torn apart by the coming Self-portrait by Milhaud. upon a stage representative. railroad strike which just had started when I got on Reproduced with the permission of the YaJe Uni,•ersity Music Library. At the time l had also asked you to let me know the plane to London. I spent a weekend in the Eng­ whatever happened to my royalties from Miinchen, lish country site [sic], in a 12th Century farmhouse and-in case it still is being given there-to whom which would make a perfect set for Falstaff. There To: Kurt We iU, New York From: Darius Milhard [Paris] these royalties are being paid in my behalf. I have was a marked bitte rness about American criticism Date: [1942] never received an answer to this either. of the E nglish Palestine policy and Ben Hecht's siUy Original letter located in the We ill/Lenya Ar­ How are you? Have you recuperated from your one-man campaign against the English empire, but chive, Yale University illness and what are you working on? Lenya and I somehow they seem to be beyond anger. The fllght are talking about going to Europe in the spring, but My dear Kurt from London to New York was lovely (7 hours it is as yet quite uncertain whether I can get away I am very excited about the Offenbach business across the Atlantic). and coming home to this coun­ from here. My new musical drama. "Lost in the and I am going to accept to make this orchestration. try had some of Lhe same emotion as arriving here But as 1 have no experience of BROADWAY­ Stars," is a big success (with Maxwell Anderson). 12 years ago. With all its faults (and parlly because please tell me exactly what they expect of me. and now we are thinking about writing a musical of them), this is still the most dece nt place to live in, 1.) Must I change the harmonies- put "pep'' in version of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn.'' and strangely e nough. wherever I found decency it. Please let me hear from you soon and accept best and humanity in the world it reminded me of Amer­ 2.) What kind of orchestra can ruse? What in­ wishes for 1950 from Lenya and myself. ica, because, to me, Americanism is (or ought to he) strume nts? Always your KW the most advanced attempt to fill the gap between Give me all sort of good advices. the individuum and the technical progress. Coun­ I can come (as Lewis asked me) for Oecember but I must be here on January 11th. tries like France and Italy seem too far removed rs hould like to know if this "affaire" has already a from this form of Americanism, while England, at good financial backing. As I will have a awfully long the moment, seems 19 get a little ahead of us-and I job to do-I should like very much to have an ad­ have a suspicion that Russia could become, in this vance of royalties as a guarantee. I wrote to Lewis sense, "Americanized"-if we want it. about that but I should like to have your advice­ It took me about a week to catch up on my sleep You ' re king of business! l did not mentionned any after the trip, but now I'm feeling fine and getting a amount in my letter to Lewis . little fed-up with doing nothing. So l'U write a few If I could have $1,000 in advance it would be more Whitman songs (which will be recorded) and a "swell" and I could take Madeleine and Daniel with symphonic piece from Street Scene. r hope very me in N. Y. You can talk to Russel Lewis of this ques­ tion. much that we start our musical when we get to­ gether. I'm s ure we can do a very good one this time yoo pee! (possibly without Danny Kaye who is a lot of nui­ Milhaud sance). - I saw Irving Lazar who will tell you about our conversations. I doubt if Bob [Sherwood] would I hope you will help me fo r the contract as I am a do what Lazar wants, but I think Bob would go along dumkop(

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